Community Connection celebrates 30th anniversary, defines mission

Saturday

Jul 27, 2013 at 9:13 PM

April Burkhart

In the nonprofit world, 30 years of operation is a significant accomplishment.

When Community Connection of Northeast Georgia celebrates its 30th anniversary on Monday, it will thank the community for its support over the last decades, remind people of what the agency does and talk about its plans for the future.

"Community Connection has been in Athens for 30 years. That is significant," said Community Connection Executive Director Fenwick Broyard. "There are a lot of national models we could point to that have done it, but smaller, community-based nonprofits have a hard way to go in terms of establishing longevity for themselves.

"The fact that (Community Connection) not only has lasted for 30 years, but has done so while also remaining true to its original objective and mission. There's something to be said for that."

To celebrate the milestone, Broyard and Community Connection will play host to "Taste of New Orleans" from 6 to 8 p.m. at Hendershot's, 237 Prince Ave., in the Bottleworks.

The event will feature authentic, homemade gumbo, King Cake, signature cocktails and a Terrapin cask as well as music by Davell Crawford, the Prince of New Orleans.

In addition to celebrating the agency's milestone, Broyard said he also plans to use the event to make Community Connection's mission and programs more clearly understood.

Although Community Connection has been around for 30 years and has its hands in almost everything in the nonprofit community through its programs, Broyard said he's discovered that many people still don't know what the organization is about.

"There are a lot of people that have interacted with programs of ours who don't know about other programs we have, so they don't have a full picture of what we do as an organization," he said. "The unique opportunity for me is branding ourselves and telling people who we are, what we do and how people can help in one line and presenting it consistently. ... Taste of New Orleans is where we're going to start."

The name Taste of New Orleans was chosen to help create an association for people in the community to Community Connection's major annual fundraiser - Taste of Athens.

"I meet people all the time who ask me what Community Connection is and I've started telling them we are the people who put on Taste of Athens," he said. "Most of them had no idea before hearing it from me that 'Taste of Athens' was connected to Community Connection.

"To help make its mission and programs more clearly understood in the community I plan to take 'Taste of Athens' and brand it in a way that makes the event synonymous with the organization and it's mission."

Part of the reason Community Connection wants to clarify its mission is because Broyard sees the opportunity to become the nonprofit that matches the image many have of Athens itself: A self-reliant city that can meet the needs of all Athenians with money raised in Athens.

"(Community Connection) is not trying to encroach on anyone's territory, but we already have direct communication with agencies providing services, people who need the services and people who want to support the agencies providing the services," Broyard said. "We can serve any age at any stage, from newborns to senior citizens. There's opportunity in that.

"If people in Athens were to think of (Community Connection) as the mothership for nonprofits, there would be less duplication of services, less inefficiencies in the system, donors and volunteers would have a less difficult time finding opportunities and nonprofits would have a less difficult time finding qualified staff. If properly applied, that level of power could transform into the prosperous Athens that the body of people envision."